Mayo Clinic concerned about staffing as Covid hospitalizations spike in Rochester
A leading voice at Mayo Clinic says the hospital is rolling back some elective procedures at its Rochester campus, as Covid-19 hospitalizations spike in the Rochester area.
In a conference call with journalists Tuesday, Dr. Amy Williams, chair of the Mayo Clinic practice, said a “small percentage” of in-patient elective surgeries at Mayo’s Rochester campus had been delayed in order to shuffle staff to treat Covid patients. The Clinic previously suspended elective care for roughly two months at the outset of the pandemic.
While Dr. Williams said the Clinic was in much better position to handle the pandemic’s effects than in March, thanks to better Covid surge modeling and improved treatment, the current situation remains “incredibly fluid.”
“We look at [the hospitalization numbers] multiple times a day to determine what staff we need to allocate where,” said Dr. Williams. “It goes back to staffing, supplies and space, and we need to make sure we have enough staff allocated to take care of those patients who need our care, whether they have Covid-19 or not.”
Dr. Williams said 92 Covid-positive patients were hospitalized at Mayo Clinic’s Rochester facilities at noon Tuesday — that’s up from 86 at midnight, and roughly three times the numbers Mayo had dealt with through the summer.
It appears that the influx of patients may be beginning to strain the hospital system across the area, as well. A slide from Gov. Tim Walz’s Tuesday press conference says southeast Minnesota’s ICU beds are at 91 percent capacity.
a ‘major jump’
The jump in hospitalizations cited by Dr. Williams follows the weekly data released by Olmsted County Public Health: after remaining largely unchanged for months, the Covid-19 situation has rapidly worsened since late October. Last week, Public Health director Graham Briggs said hospitalizations in the area would likely spike over the month of November — and Clinic data backs that belief up.
“We have seen an escalation, over the last couple of weeks, of patients needing to be hospitalized,” said Dr. Williams. “It started in Wisconsin and slowly spread our way, but it really has been over the past two-and-a-half weeks where we’ve seen this major jump from where we were to where we are now.”
With some Clinic staff members already coming down with the virus, Dr. Williams said her greatest concern for the coming months was a potential outbreak among Clinic employees. If caregivers are forced to stay home, she says, the entire operation could be thrown into disarray.
“We would run out of individuals available and well enough to take care of patients who need our help,” said Dr. Williams, noting that 1,000 employees across the system are now away from work after contracting the virus or being in contact with someone who has tested positive. “We want to be able to take care of our patients no matter what, and we can’t do that without adequate staffing.”
When asked about what the public could do to help slow the spread of the virus, Dr. Williams said the community should continue to follow the general guidelines in place for the vast majority of the pandemic: wear a mask, social distance, practice good hand hygiene, and avoid large gatherings.
Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.
Cover photo courtesy Mayo Clinic
